


every secret’s key

by beneathyourbravery



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Brothers, Dating Advice, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Slice of Life, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27963758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beneathyourbravery/pseuds/beneathyourbravery
Summary: Doyoung, Jeno’s older brother, has always held the key to every mystery of the universe—namely, Jeno’s concerns regarding love.
Relationships: Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung & Lee Jeno, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, background Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 12
Kudos: 141





	every secret’s key

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy this soft brothers!dojen fic that came to my mind while i was going about my day and would not let me live unless i wrote it (๑•͈ᴗ•͈) 
> 
> this is un-edited so i’m sorry for any possible mistakes !

The knock on his door comes late enough into this Thursday night to startle Doyoung when he’d believed himself the last person awake at home.

“Hyung?” comes Jeno’s meek voice from the other side of the wall, cautious as always, despite Doyoung’s endless scolding at making himself sound more firm _so they do not get to you, Jeno-ah, don’t ever let them step on you_ , “are you busy?”

Doyoung is really not—texting Taeyong does not qualify as busy, he guesses, because no matter how many… _interesting_ turns their late night conversations tend to take, a very tacit possibility on a day like this, none of it will ever be more important than what Jeno has to say when he comes to him like this.

“Come in,” Doyoung calls out, placing his phone face down onto his pillow and sitting up underneath the heavy covers of his single bed, “what’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Jeno smiles as he walks inside Doyoung’s room, the decor no different than it was when he was fifteen years old—the same posters still plastered to the walls and the same tiny, white fairy lights hanging from the headboard of his bed, a timeless place despite the constant changes in his life, home and refuge he does not ever want to lose—, “what were you doing?”

Jeno has always been soft and gentle like this. As his older and only brother, Doyoung knows this quite well. He has seen him come back home from school endless times, when he was still little enough, with a barely concealed pout after having to keep the playground bullies away from his friends, breaking down into loud fits of tears when he explained it to their parents and Doyoung himself, _“and then he almost punched Chenle but I pushed him away and I feel so bad, hyung! I don’t wanna be bad, I just—why do they have to be so mean, Chenle is younger, it’s not fair!”_ ; has heard all sorts of compliments coming out of Jeno’s every friend’s mothers’ mouths, _“he’s the sweetest boy ever, how is he so polite!”_ , _“you’re so lucky to have a kid like him, he’s so kind and mature for his age”_ , _“both your sons are lovely!”_ , Doyoung’s mother pride boosting every single time; has known him for the seventeen years Jeno’s been alive by now to understand, better than anyone, that there is not one ounce of bad inside his little brother’s heart.

“I was just texting Taeyong,” Doyoung says, scooting over to the right side of his bed so Jeno can slide under the covers with him, the winter cold seeping through the walls of their house and inviting them to seek the warmth of their blankets like they used to do when they were still children, building pillow forts in front of the fireplace, “why are you awake?”

At the mention of Taeyong’s name, Jeno’s face lights up and then promptly blushes at the attention it draws to him, making Doyoung break out into a soft laugh. “Don’t laugh!” Jeno whines, “I just think you two are cute, don’t make me change my mind.”

Doyoung is twenty-two now, going to college while still living at home, and has been dating Taeyong since he was Jeno’s age—tender seventeen, still in high school, when his parents still hadn’t thought he could like boys the way he did, and yet. 

Doyoung remembers the day he told his family as if it were yesterday; how nervous he’d been, anxiety and fear gripping tight at the bottom of his throat and making it hard to utter the words; the little giggle his mother had left out, as if she had always known, a shake of her head when she stood up to hug him and say, _“stop shaking, my baby, of course you’re dating Taeyong! Who else could there be, hm?”_ alongside to his father’s nod, support where he’d expected anger and utter cold. He remembers how absolutely _delighted_ Jeno had been, too, barely thirteen, eyes closing into his signature crescent moons as he claimed, _“yay! Taeyong hyung is the best, I’m so happy, hyung! I want a boyfriend like him too!”_ ; his family’s bursts of laughter, relief like a honey soothing balm over sharp edges and worried hearts.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Doyoung grins, gently elbowing Jeno’s arm before laying back down so he could cover them back up with the covers, a little shiver running quick down his spine, “now tell me why you’re here, c’mon.”

At this, Jeno moves his eyes up to stare at the ceiling, a more solemn kind of expression making home out of his sharpened face, more defined as he grows up yet still as cute as Doyoung remembers him to be when he was just a little kid.

“Hyung,” he starts, teeth peeking out to gwnak at his slightly-chapped bottom lip, “how did you know you were in love with Taeyong hyung?”

The question catches Doyoung off guard with the sincerity it carries; makes his heart leap inside his chest, and his eyes widen where he’s laying on his side to stare at Jeno’s profile while he talks. Doyoung knows Jeno thinks he holds the key to every secret in the universe, but this—a question so deep, reaching so far inside his chest, was not what he was expecting on a chill night like this one. “What?” he asks softly, afraid it’ll scare Jeno away, “why are you asking me that?”

“It’s a silly question, I know,” Jeno laughs softly, but the blush staining his cheeks and the bridge of his nose is determined not to leave, warm red across sharp bones, “but I’m just curious, you know. You’ve been together for so long, and—”

“Jen,” Doyoung cuts him with a smile, sensing the rambling that was definitely about to come, the instinctive need to keep Jeno safe and calm taking control over his tongue, “it’s fine, it’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting that! Ah, how to tell…”

It’s enough to settle Jeno—he finally looks back at Doyoung, face open and vulnerable in the place he knows himself unable to be harmed, so honest and trusting that it almost takes Doyoung’s breath away; because Jeno might be seventeen now, asking questions about love well past midnight, but in Doyoung’s eyes he will always be the same child playing with plastic ducks inside the bathtub with white bubbles on his hair—the one he will always protect, through thick and thin, many years down the road from now.

“It wasn’t anything sudden, you know? Like—Taeyong and I, we’ve been friends since kindergarten, right, so it’s not like I went to sleep one day thinking of him as my very best friend and woke up the next wanting to date him.” The little tale makes Jeno giggle, pulling up the covers a little further until he can cover his face up to his nose with them, as always so invested in what Doyoung has to tell. “It was something more like… I don’t know, I guess one day I started thinking about how I didn’t want to imagine life without Yongie, and then we’d brush hands or cuddle while watching movies and it was like… I just really felt this need to be closer to him, as sappy as it sounds? And I guess he felt the same, because then one day, you know, we kissed and then… started dating and. Yep. It was quite easy, knowing I wanted to be with him, more unconsciously than not, really, but… yeah.”

The room falls into a comfortable silence when Doyoung stops talking. Jeno’s eyes have traveled back to the ceiling, as if he were lost in thought pondering about his brother’s story, those of their breathing the only sounds interrupting the calm.

Doyoung considers asking Jeno why he came to ask that question tonight—seemingly without reason, awfully quiet where he’s moved to tuck himself against Doyoung’s chest in a silent request of shelter and comfort—, but Jeno beats him to it when he lets out a soft sigh against Doyoung’s shoulder, arms sneaking around his middle to give him the hug he most probably needs for himself.

Doyoung returns it silently and gives him the time to speak if he wishes to do it; always an open field for Jeno to scream into until he’s let go of the weight on his shoulders, the heaviness of his heart.

“It’s Jaemin,” Jeno mumbles after a while, so quietly that Doyoung almost misses it, a soft whisper that resonates louder than his own heartbeat, “hyung, I just, I don’t understand what’s happening to me. I just, Jaemin is my best friend, right? Has always been, but then—then I see him and think, God, he’s so pretty, because how could I not? He _is_ , and then I think about how much I would like to kiss him, how I want to hold his hand and take him on a date, I guess, when we go out with the bikes, maybe give him a surprise just so I can make him happy, because Jaemin deserves to _always be happy_ , and I know I’m rambling, but, hyung. Does this mean I’m in love? It does, doesn’t it? So what do I do? He’s going to hate me, or maybe not because Jaemin is _always kissing my cheeks and saying how he loves holding my hand_ but that surely doesn’t mean he likes me back, and—”

“Jeno, stop,” Doyoung shushes him as gently as he can muster, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips despite the evident anguish displayed bare on his brother’s face, “I get it, okay? Trust me, I really, _really_ do. It’s… it’s hard, I know it is, and I’d say the best move would be telling him about it and talk things out _because that’s always the wisest move_ , but then I’d be an hypocrite,” he laughs softly, running his fingers through the black strands of Jeno’s hair, “because I was too much of a coward to tell Taeyong until he did it first. But, from what you’re telling me _and_ what I’ve been seeing all my life… shit, Jeno, c’mon. I… think there’s a pretty high chance that Jaemin likes you back, baby.”

“What? What have _you_ seen, hyung!” Jeno asks, eyes wide and mouth parted open in disbelief, and Doyoung doesn’t have it in him to hide his laugh. 

Oh, to be young and in love all over again; he wouldn’t change what he has with Taeyong now for the world, but seeing Jeno pining for someone Doyoung is _sure_ likes him back reminds him too much of the good old times—when Johnny would threaten to smack both him and Taeyong on the head if they didn’t get over their tip-toeing around each other, when Doyoung thought himself able to weave and unweave a shroud like Penelope did in the Odyssey, waiting for Taeyong to say the words he was too scared to mouth.

“Well, I’ve heard Jaemin call you _handsome_ , _pretty_ and _beautiful_ way more times than I’ve heard him call your own name, which should say something given that he’s _always_ calling out for you,” Doyoung grins, watching Jeno’s cheeks turn scarlet, then something even darker with the force of his blush, “and I’ve _seen_ him stare at you like there is literally nobody else in the world he would rather look at! And Jeno, trust me on this one, when you spend _all of your time_ with someone and _you_ fall in love with them, it’s very, very likely that what they feel for you is just the same.”

Jeno whines high in his throat, pulling Doyoung’s duvet up until he can hide completely underneath it, little sounds of despair spilling out from his lips as he takes in everything that’s just been said. “Hyung,” he mumbles out after a short while of panicking by himself, “do you really mean all that?”

“Of course I do, silly,” Doyoung grins, sliding under the covers too just so he can steal a look at Jeno’s flushed face and puppy eyes—the very human embodiment of a samoyed, cute and gentle and lovely all the same, “hear me out, you can start by throwing little hints at Jaemin that you like him, okay? Knowing him—and I have, since he was a child just like you!—he’ll understand right away. But you gotta keep me updated, alright? Promise me!”

Jeno holds his breath for a second, emerging back from the safety of the blankets alongside his brother, and then looks back at Doyoung with a more relieved form of his signature smile and says, “okay, hyung. I promise you.”

And there are so, so many things Doyoung would like to tell Jeno—about trusting himself and risking it all for what he really wants—, but tonight he just snuggles closer to his younger, sadly always-growing brother and tells him, “sleep here tonight, like when we were little?”

Jeno giggles, giving a short nod of his head before rearranging himself next to Doyoung and searching for his phone inside the pocket of his pyjama pants. “Okay,” he gives in, as if Doyoung didn’t know that’d been his intention all this time, “but let me say goodnight to Jaemin first.”

Doyoung grins and elbows him on the ribs teasingly, earning himself a smack on the arm in return. “Alright, alright. I’ll say goodnight to Taeyongie too, then.”

Jeno huffs out a short laugh, eyes already immersed into his conversation with the boy Doyoung already knows holds his heart in his hands.

When Doyoung opens the chat with his very own special person, there’s a text in all caps waiting for him there, sounding by all means like a promise of chaos about to ensue within Jeno’s own friend group.

 **taeyongie** **🌱🌹💖** — thirteen minutes ago

_YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT MY BROTHER DONGHYUCK JUST TOLD ME !! ABOUT JOHNNY’S BROTHER MARK !!!!!!!_

Oh, young love—the motor of life, despite how many years pass. Doyoung responds to Taeyong’s text with endless interrogation signs and loves him and loves him and loves him over and over again. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! please leave kudos and/or comment if you enjoyed this story, and you can find me on [twt](https://twitter.com/hanniecuqui) and [cc](https://curiouscat.me/peekatom) <3.


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